Vettel still focussed on challenging Mercedes

Sebastian Vettel denied that he and Ferrari are now at risk of having to play defence for the rest of the season in order to stay ahead of a resurgent Red Bull, rather than being able to focus on cutting the gap to Mercedes at the front.

"I think our aim is still looking forward. In that regard our aim is Mercedes," the four-time world champion insisted.

"We want to make progress and want to make sure we close the gap to Mercedes rather than looking at what's going on behind.

With Mercedes out of the picture in Spain, both Vettel and his team mate Kimi Raikkonen finished on the podium - but neither was able to stop Max Verstappen from claiming the outright race win.

"I think in Barcelona we had a bad Saturday which explained a difficult race on Sunday. I think in terms of raw speed we should have been ahead but we weren't, so I said on the day well done to them and well done in particular well done to Max. But we move on - I think we have a strong package, we do have new bits here and there."

Monaco might not seen the obvious place for Ferrari to get back on the top step of the podium, with the team not having won on the streets of the principality since 2001. However Vettel felt that the 'levelling' effect of the historic street race might be just what he needed to get back to winning ways.

"I think it's one of the places that's difficult to read the strengths of the car or the weaknesses of the car," he explained. "It's a place where a driver can make more of a difference, a place where you need to have the confidence as a driver in order to be able to make the difference,.

"Of course it's important which car you have, how confident you are, but it's probably more important here the level of just confidence going around, the trust in the circuit, because that allows you to - compared to other tracks, let's say more normal race tracks - to extract a little more.

However, he wasn't downplaying the challenge Ferrari face this weekend and indeed this season.

"I think we've done a very big step forward, a lot better than last year, but you need to accept the challenge that others have improved their cars as well. I'm sure if we could race with this year's car last year we would win the championship by a country mile but it's not the case. Equally everybody else in the pit lane is probably telling you the same story.

"You need to be there when it matters and at the moment we're still a little bit behind."

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Technical analysis: Barcelona

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